East Cape Tolaga Bay Wharf

Description

The historical landmark in Tolaga Bay, East Cape Wharf was built between 1926 and 1929. The striking wharf was an impressive feat of engineering when built by the Tolaga Bay Harbour Board and has outstanding technological significance. It was a lifeline for a remote region that had only limited road access. At its peak, more than 130 ships worked the port, bringing in essential farming supplies and transporting locally produced meat and wool.

Tolaga Bay Wharf is believed to be the longest reinforced concrete wharf and jetty in an open roadstead in the southern hemisphere, at 660 metres long, and when built it was considered daring to have attempted such a structure in an open dynamic marine situation rather than within a protected harbour. Several technical and design details ensured the structure was sufficiently stable and strong enough to withstand storms and large swells.

The wharf served the rural community for nearly 40 years as the main route for incoming supplies, machinery, fuel, fertilizer and grain seed and for export of produce such as fattened and store livestock, maize and butter. In this it played a major economic role in the development of the local agricultural industry.

Today, Tolaga Bay Wharf is no longer a working port but is instead a much-loved local landmark.

Significantly impacted by Cyclone Hale in 2023, the wharf only reopened (to halfway) in early 2024.